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OLLA.

rare exception. Their dominion, of course, would not be an oligarchy ; but neither would it be a democracy (Arist. Pol. iv. 3). When an aristo­cracy passed in the natural development of society into an oligarchy, the oligarchs would, of course, be, high born as well as rich. But high birth was not an essential condition. It very commonly hap­pened that the oligarchs were themselves only a sec­tion of the old nobility, having excluded the poorer members of their order from the possession of power.

Aristotle (Pol. iv. 5) distinguishes various spe­cies of oligarchy: — 1. Where a certain large amount of property is the only requisite for being a member of the ruling class: 2. Where the pro­perty qualification is not large, but the members of the government themselves supply any vacancies that ma}r occur in their ranks by electing others to fill them : 3. Where the son succeeds to the power of his father: 4. Where, besides this being the case, the rulers govern according to no fixed laws, but arbitrarily. ,(Comp. Plat. Polit. pp. 301, 302.) The first kind, especially when the r/^/xa was not extravagantly high, so that a considerable number shared political power, though only a few of them might be eligible to the highest offices, was sometimes called ri/jLOKparia (Arist. Etli. Nic. viii. 12 ; Xenophon, Mem. iv. 6. § 12, uses the term TrXovrotcparia • Plato, deRep. viii. p. 547, d., uses the term TiuoKparia in a different sense). It approximates closely to the TroAireia, and hence Aristotle (Pol. iv. 11) calls it o\iyapx'l<x> TroAm/c?]. Elsewhere (Eth. Nic. I. c.) he identifies it with the iroKireia.

These general divisions of course admitted of various modifications ; and the distribution of the functions of government might be such as to create an oligarchy within an oligarchy. To this species of oligarchy, the name SvvacrTsia was sometimes applied. (Arist. PoL v. 2. 5 ; Thuc. iii. 62, iv. 78 ; Xen. Hellen. v. 4. § 46.)

The term Aristocratiais not unfrequently ap­plied to what the more careful distinctions of the writers on political science would term Oligarchial. (Comp. Thuc. iii. 82 ; Xen. Hellen. v. 2. § 7 ; Aristoph. Av. 125.)

Besides being made of earthenware (Antiphanes ap. Athen. x. 70 ; bffTpaKivri, testacea} and bronze (xaA/cr), aenea, Aesop. Fab. 329 ; Cato, de Re Rust. 81 ; aenum, Ovid. Met. vii. 318—321 ; Ae^s XaA/ceos, Herod, i. 48), the ancients also made these vessels of different kinds of stone, which were turned upon the lathe. At Pleurs, a village near Chiavenna to the north of the Lake of Como, the manufacture of vessels from the potstone found in a neighbouring mountain is still carried on, and has probably existed there from the time of Pliny, who makes express mention of it (PL N. xxxvi. 22. s. 44). Some of these vessels are nearly two feet in diameter, and, being adapted to bear the fire, are used for cooking. (Oculis observare ollam pultis, ne adurattir, Varro, ap. Non. Marcell. p. 543. ed. Merceri; Festus, s. v. A ulas.)

OLLA.

02;

The preceding woodcut is taken from a vase in the British Museum, which was found at Canino in Etruria. The painting upon it represents the story of Medea boiling an old ram with a view to persuade the daughters of Pelias to put him to death. (Ovid, Met. vii. 318—321 ; Hygin. Fab. 24.) The pot has a round bottom, and is supported by a tripod under which is a large fire. The ram, restored to youth, is just in the act of leaping out of the pot. Instead of being supported by a sepa­rate tripod, the vessel was sometimes made with the feet all in one piece, and it was then called in Greek rp'nrovs [tripos], xvrP°'irovs (Hes. Op. et Dies, 748 ; Schol. in Soph. Aj. 1405), and irvpiff-

TCiT1]S.

Besides being placed upon the fire in order to boil water or cook victuals, the ancients used pots to carry fire, just as is now done by the modern inhabitants of Greece, Italy, and Sicily. (Xen. Hellen. iv. 5. § 4.) They also used small pots con­taining fire and pitch to annoy the enemy in sieges by throwing them from slings and military engines.

Ollae were also used to hold solids and keep them in store, Avhile amphorae rendered the same service in regard to liquids. [amphora.] Thus grapes were kept in jars as at present. (Columell. R. R. xii. 43.) Although pots were commonly made solely with a view to utility, and were therefore destitute of ornament and without handles, yet they were sometimes made with two handles (Siwroi) like amphorae ; and, when they were well turned upon the wheel, well baked, smooth and neat, and so large as to hold six congii (=ty gal­lons nearly), they were, as we learn from Plato (Hipp.Mcy. pp. 153,154, ed. Heindorf), considered very beautiful.

Pots were used, as with us, in gardening. (Cato, de Re Rust. 51.) The custom of placing flower­pots in windows is mentioned by Martial (xi. 19. 1, 2). A flower-pot, about six inches high and suited to this application, was found among the ruins of Aldborough, the ancient Isurium, and is